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The winner would be the mandatory challenger for the WBO heavyweight title.Ruiz was ordered to fight Joseph Parker in New Zealand for the WBO heavyweight title with the fight set to take place on December 10, 2016.This was the first time in 14 professional fights that Ruiz was outweighed by his opponent.This was Ruiz's fourth successful defence of his NABF heavyweight title as Austin was down in round 1, injured his right hand and failed to come out of his corner for round 5.Compu Box stats showed that Parker landed 119 of 560 punches thrown (21%) and Ruiz landed 107 of his 416 thrown (26%).On December 19, 2017 Angel "Memo" Heredia, a well known strength and conditioning trainer, confirmed that he would be working alongside Ruiz.Ruiz made a successful 5th defence of his NABF title after 10 one-sided rounds. The win also set up a future WBO eliminator with bout with Hughie Fury.

But before Fury vacated, Duco Events promoter Dean Lonergan announced in early October he had been negotiating an alternative WBO title fight against Ruiz, suggesting he had a chance of reaching a deal with Bob Arum.This fight came about by Ruiz being one of the two top ranked contenders willing to fight for the vacant title.The title became vacant when former champion Tyson Fury vacated the title.After a 9-month gap, Ruiz returned to the ring on September 2015 at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, California defeating Joell Godfrey via 8 round unanimous decision, all three judges scored it 80-72.Godfrey was a late replacement for Devin Vargas, who was unable to obtain a license from the California Athletic Commission.

After this bout, Ruiz increased his record to 27 wins in as many fights.